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Mojang Studio to ban Minecraft NFT integration

NFTs create digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which do not align with Minecraft values, the creator said

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Published: Jul 21, 2022 04:14:40 PM IST

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Image: Courtesy Minecraft

Swedish developer Mojang Studios, the creator of the well-known game Minecraft, and a Microsoft subsidiary, announced on Wednesday that it would be banning the inclusion of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and blockchain technology in general from its famous game.

Citing its justification for the choice, Mojang said: "Like any digital file, NFTs can be copied, moved, or even deleted.

Additionally, NFTs and blockchain have also been associated with price speculation. These uses of NFTs and other blockchain technologies create digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft's values of creative inclusion and playing together."

The unreliability of third-party NFTs, the technology's general reliance on asset managers who might abruptly disappear, taking a user's NFTs with them, and NFTs' inclination to participate in pump-and-dump schemes are other reasons Mojang stated while putting up its case against blockchain and NFTs.

The game studio also blasted NFTs' "speculative pricing" and "investment mentality," which detract from the gaming experience and support profit-seeking at the expense of the games' long-term playability. It also cited rug-pulls involving a few third-party NFT integrations and NFT wash trading or deceptive pricing manipulation to justify the prohibition.

Administrators are permitted to charge users for access to their privately hosted Minecraft servers under the existing user standards, although there are a few additional restrictions.

This requires that paid customers have legitimately purchased copies of the game and that access fees remain constant for all users. Mojang plans to amend those rules to forbid the incorporation and transfer of NFTs into the game.

The new guidelines prohibit Minecraft's client and server applications from integrating with third-party blockchain solutions.

Additionally, they cannot be used to make NFTs linked to any in-game material, such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods.

Although the changes don't affect most Minecraft players, they are expected to impact a small group of players who also make money from in-game NFTs. Therefore, third-party NFT collections digitising in-game assets for Minecraft may be in breach of such agreements and subject to possible legal action.

Shashank is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash